Darkness Returns 2
by MysticFantasy
Summary: While recovering from the latest battle against Hades, Athena and the saints learn of a new enemy that threatens not only humanity but the Olympians as well. Sequel to Darkness Returns.
1. Chapter 1

Darkness Returns 2

By: MysticFantasy (taken over from MimiYamatoForever)

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The sun was shining brilliantly down onto Sanctuary and there didn't seem to be a cloud in the sky. Solders and recruits were busy finishing repairs from the damages that had been done to Sanctuary during the previous battle. The rubble and debris were being cleared as quickly as possible and new things were being made in order to please Athena.

The twelve Gold Saints were busy fixing their temples or adding new rooms and other things to them as it was requested by Athena that they were to start training successors for the Gold cloths.

Aiolos, Camus and Dohko already had Seiya, Hyoga and Shiryu training every day and the three youths were staying in the temples with their mentors.

The rest of the Gold Saints, however, had problems of their own. Besides Aiolos, Camus and Dohko, Mu was the only other Gold Saint who was already training someone to one day be a successor.

The remaining eight Gold saints now had to figure out just who exactly they had to train and because of that Athena was giving them special permission to leave Sanctuary if they needed to.

Shaka, though he didn't want to admit it openly, was disappointed that he wouldn't be able to train Shun to be the next Virgo saint. After going through so many battles, Shaka had seen the power Shun held inside him as a saint and he wanted more than anything to train Shun to be even stronger. But now that wasn't possible and the Virgo saint now had to decide which of his two strongest pupils would take his place one day.

Not only that but Phoenix Ikki was still missing and that was posing a problem to Leo Aioria as Ikki was suppose to be the next Leo Gold Saint.

A search was still taking place to find Ikki wherever he may be and Aioria was out helping them. Nearly a month has gone by since the battle between Hades ended and there was still no sign of the phoenix saint to be found despite how many people were searching for him. The search parties had checked all over Greece, Japan and what was left of Death Queen Island but Ikki wasn't in any of those locations.

Searches were still taking place to find him but the problem was that no one had any idea where Ikki had gone after the fight on Mount Olympus. The minute he had turned mortal again he was sent to Earth by Hades but the location was unknown to any of them so finding him was taking a very long time. Ikki needed to be found quickly so he could be informed on what happened to his little brother.

They all knew that Ikki wasn't going to take the news about Shun well. The saints and Athena were still having a hard time dealing with the end result of the battle with Hades.

At the last moment before Hades had stabbed Athena with his sword, Shun had managed to take control of his body and powers. He had summoned the gold nebula chains of the Andromeda god cloth to hold his body and cosmo to allow Athena to remove his and Hade's soul from his body.

Athena had then sealed both of their souls inside the star pentagram around Shun's neck and placed the seal of Athena on it to keep them from escaping. But before his soul had been removed from his body, Shun had demanded that his body be contained so that if Hades soul somehow did manage to escape he wouldn't be able to be possessed again.

Athena and the other saints gave their word to grant Shun's last request.

After combining their cosmo, Camus and Hyoga had sealed Shun's lifeless body inside an ice coffin that was later placed in a secluded area inside the palace and only Athena and the Gold and Bronze saints were permitted to enter that area.

Shun's sacrifice and bravery was known through the entire Sanctuary. Everyone honored his actions and memory. For even though he was the darkest of the Greek gods reborn on earth as a human, his loyalties as a saint to Athena were still true and strong.

And he would never be forgotten for what he had done.

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[ _ **Sagittarius temple**_ ]

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It was his day off from training and for that Seiya was somewhat glad. The training Aiolos had him doing every day kept his mind off of things for a while but at the same time he felt like he needed some time to rest and think things out. His mind was still stuck on what happened a month ago in the battle between good and evil.

The day he let his present and past friend down.

Even after a month had passed, Seiya still felt guilty about what had to be done in order to stop Hades from destroying Sanctuary and possibly the whole world. Even if Shun had demanded such things to be done Seiya still couldn't believe they had actually gone through with it.

But his guilt was running deeper than not having been able to help Shun. His guilt went all the way back to the 18th century when he hadn't been able to help his best friend Alone when he had been revealed as Hades next incarnation.

The face of the kind and gifted artist before and after the possession was forever imprinted in Seiya's mind and it would never vanish no matter how hard he tried to forget.

During the war with Hades, Seiya discovered that he was indeed the Pegasus saint that always fought alongside Athena. Anytime she was reincarnated he was as well. The war against Hades had revived Seiya's memories of his previous life as Tenma who grew up an orphan in Italy alongside the orphan siblings Sasha and Alone and later, after learning he had a cosmo, had trained under Gold Saint Dohko of Libra in Sanctuary where he once again won his Pegasus cloth and became a saint for Athena once more.

Seiya had to admit that he didn't want to right away believe that he was the legendary Pegasus saint said to be the strongest in Athena's army but his memories were too strong for him to ignore.

Remembering bits of several other memories with friends in lifetimes before, Seiya felt that no matter how many times he was reincarnated with a different face and name as long as he had his friends and could serve Athena he would always feel like the same person.

"Seiya? Are you alright? You've been very quiet today."

The young man looked up to see Aiolos in his regular training clothes.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Just remembering happier times." Seiya answered.

"It's good to do that at times." Aiolos said sitting down with Seiya.

"Yeah but it's not really helping me get over this guilt."

"Guilt is never easy to overcome no matter how hard you try." Aiolos stated. "I know that Shun doesn't want us to feel guilty from what happened but it's very difficult not to. It was incredibly difficult to do something like that to one of our own after all. I must admit that I still have trouble getting to sleep at night."

Seiya nodded and looked up toward the palace beyond the remaining temples. Naturally it was the first thing to be fixed after the battle since Athena stayed there. Everything had been fixed and cleaned up so now it looked almost new.

And underneath the palace a secret was hidden.

"You can go see him if you want." Aiolos said.

"I think I will." Seiya said standing. "Maybe seeing Shun for a while will ease my guilt a bit."

"Take your time. No curfew today." Aiolos said with a smile before heading back into the temple.

Seiya lightly smiled and started making his way up the flight of stairs that would take him past the rest of the zodiac temples and directly to the palace.

Having gone up and down the stairs so many times Seiya had quickly gotten use to them though he still often wondered why so many were needed.

Inside the Capricorn temple, Shura was so busy cleaning the statue he had of Athena giving a warrior the great Excalibur sword that he didn't even see Seiya walking by. Deciding not to bother him, Seiya kept walking and soon found himself at the Aquarius temple.

Just outside the entrance of the temple, Seiya felt the chilly air radiating from inside. His body started to shiver the further inside he went.

Almost instantly, he spotted the only two people who could possibly live in this environment. Camus and Hyoga were sitting at a table playing a game of chess and it looked like Hyoga was having trouble trying to figure out a way to win.

"Hey Seiya," Hyoga greeted after moving his knight.

"Hey Hyoga. Hi Camus." Seiya greeted.

"Enjoying your day off?" Camus asked easily spotting Seiya's shivering and had to smirk at his actions.

"Everything's going good so far." Seiya answered. "I'm still never going to understand how you two can live like this."

Hyoga chuckled. "It's just fine for us but you should probably get back out in the sun before you get frostbite or hypothermia."

"Right." Camus agreed moving one of his chess pieces.

"Alright. I'll see you guys later after I thaw out." Seiya said heading towards the back exit.

"Poor Seiya." Hyoga chuckled. "He never liked this cool atmosphere."

"Maybe one day he'll get use to it. He's still a saint after all." Camus said moving a chess piece. "Checkmate."

Once outside and back in the sun, Seiya felt the warmth starting to return to his body as he made his way up the stairs. Now the Pisces temple was left to go through. Hopefully Aphrodite would once again be tending to his garden.

Out of the Gold Saints, Aphrodite was one of the few who never gave Seiya any kind of torture. All he would hear from the self proclaimed most beautiful saint was skin and hair care tips and that his roses were off limits. Only he and Athena were allowed to touch them.

Naturally the others were going to take his warning. Right now the flowers weren't poisonous but once the poison was starting to emit from the flowers there was no way that anyone was going near them.

Seiya didn't see Aphrodite anywhere inside trying to 'better' his appearance but quickly spotted the saint outside tending to his roses. Most of the red flowers had been replanted and were quickly growing but some of the stairway was still visible and someone could still walk by.

The new flowers were growing more beautiful than the ones before and Aphrodite wasn't sure of that since he claimed that he gave his roses the best attention possible. Seiya could only suggested that the new beautiful flowers were probably saying that peaceful times were finally here.

The Pegasus saint nearly laughed when he saw Aphrodite quickly watering his huge rose garden. Luckily for Seiya, the 'poison' hadn't been applied to these flowers yet so he didn't have to worry about inhaling the toxic air or getting scratched by one of the thorns.

"Hello Seiya." Aphrodite greeted pausing in his watering task once he saw the younger man.

"Hey Aphrodite, how's the garden coming?" Seiya asked.

"Remarkably quick and well." The Pisces saint answered proudly. "Very soon they shall be as beautiful and poisonous as the first garden."

"Great." Seiya said slowly. "Well, I'll get out of you hair so you can finish this."

"Are you going to see Shun?" Aphrodite asked.

"Yeah." Seiya answered.

"Can you give these to him while you're there?" Aphrodite asked picking up a bundle of the reddest roses he had and handing them to Seiya.

Seiya smiled taking the flowers. "Sure thing. I'll tell him you sent them."

Aphrodite nodded with a smile and watched as Seiya continued on towards the palace as the younger saint made sure to stay clear of the blooming roses.

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[ _ **Hidden chamber**_ ]

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The hallway to the hidden chamber was dark with the only light coming from a few lit torches and the only sounds were his footsteps. Seiya figured someone else had to be here since the torches were lit.

To prevent anyone else from coming into this area, Athena had set up an invisible barrier that would only allow herself, the gold saints and the bronze saints to enter once it recognized each of their individual cosmo. Anyone else who tried to get past the barrier would need the permission or presence of Athena herself. Otherwise it would simply act as a force field and keep anyone and everyone away from reaching the hidden room.

Seiya walked into the hidden chamber to see Athena standing in front of the ice block where Shun was 'sleeping'. Obviously she had been here quite a while since there were a few new things in the room.

The Pegasus saint noticed that the Andromeda cloth chest was sitting on a stone side table against the left wall with a white silk cloth under the box. Seiya knew that the Andromeda armor was incomplete inside the chest because the gold chains were missing as they were still wrapped around Shun's body inside the ice.

There was also a large full body painting on the right wall of Shun wearing the Andromeda God cloth with the great Andromeda nebula painted in the background. It was framed in a beautiful gold frame and placed perfectly on the wall. Under the painting there was another stone side table that had a few lit candles on it and a few framed photo's of Shun and friends.

Two pictures were of him with Seiya, Shiryu, Hyoga and Ikki in their Bronze armor and then a casual one on the beach, another was a group photo of all the Gold and Bronze saints, another was of him and Ikki and the one that caught Seiya's eye most was the only picture of Shun in his childhood.

He had seen it once before. It was him and Ikki when Ikki was just a little boy and Shun was still a baby. Ikki was holding Shun who was wrapped in a pink blanket smiling like what was going on was play time. The picture had been taken when they had been found by agents of the Graude Foundation.

Looking away from the pictures of better times, Seiya walked over and knelt to Athena although he wasn't sure she knew he was there.

"You've been feeling more restless than usual as well?" Athena asked softly surprising Seiya a little.

"Yes," he answered. "I've been remembering things from our previous life and I actually remember a few things from before. I'm wondering if fate has made it to where the three of us know each other so well only for us to be turned against one another in the end."

"I've often wondered about that as well, Seiya." Athena said. "The three of us have met and known each other time and time again in previous lives. Either we have been friends, relatives or just met by chance but something always brought us together. We would come to know each other and form close friendships only to find out that we would have to fight against one another in a Holy War. It seems that fate does in fact have a cruel humor."

"It's not fair. For any of us." Seiya said standing and walking over to look up at Shun. His black hair was away from his face which held the peaceful expression he had before being frozen. Seiya could only assume that Shun felt comfort knowing that they had found a way to keep Hades from returning to Earth.

"If there was a way to change fate I would do it and make sure that none of this happens to us anymore." Seiya declared feeling his eyes quiver as he looked at Shun before placing the bundle of roses at the base of the ice coffin. "Aphrodite sent you his best roses buddy."

"If changing fate were possible I would gladly help you in that task, Seiya." Athena said with a weak smile.

Truthfully, she wanted all of this to end already. Every time that she was reborn she would come to know the Pegasus saint and have a close friendship with him and then she would meet the person who was Hades next reincarnation and become friends with them. After a peaceful time with them Athena would learn that the Holy War was closely approaching and that they would all possibly die only to repeat the cycle again.

The last Holy War was the hardest since Athena had to attack her own older brother. They had been able to reach Alone's human side for a brief moment before Pandora arrived and ruined everything.

And in the end almost everyone lost.

Seiya placed his hand on the ice and the instant chill made him remove his hand. He frowned looking at Shun. He was stuck in there feeling nothing but the freezing ice that held him captive and the ice block was inside an underground chamber where it was at a cold temperature all day.

The only window in the room had been right above the ice block on the back wall but it had been removed so no one would discover what was really inside the chamber.

The only people who knew where Shun was located were the ones who put him here. Athena and her Gold and Bronze saints. They were the only people who knew the exact location and they were the only ones who could ever see him.

Turning from her friend sleeping in the ice, Athena looked to Seiya.

"Seiya, I wish to ask for your help for an important matter." she said.

Seiya quickly knelt to her. "Anything you wish, Athena." he said.

"As you know, Shion, our last pope, has left us. Sanctuary needs a new pope to help us whenever we need it. I want to ask you if you can help me decide which of the Gold Saints should be the next pope of Sanctuary."

"I'll help you however I can, Athena." Seiya said with a gentle smile although in the back of his mind he already had an idea who she was going to pick to be pope.

The two started to leave the room so they could try to figure a few things out and hopefully get their minds off of Shun for a while. Before shutting the large iron doors, Seiya looked at Shun one last time.

 _Things will be alright, Shun. You won't have to be in there forever. I'll make sure of that._ he vowed silently as he shut the doors and started to follow Athena down the hall.

 _One day, the team will be together again. I know it will._ Seiya thought as he helped Athena put out the flames of the torches. _Very soon we'll all be together again and hopefully things will be normal for once._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

By: MysticFantasy

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The dark night sky was quickly gathering with storm clouds and thunder could be heard in the distance but there was still enough clear sky to be seen and identify a few constellations.

Seiya was in the process of trying to locate every constellation of Athena's eighty-eight saints using a great telescope Aiolos had kept in a closet. He had a star chart in his hands and would put a small check mark next to the constellations he found. Already he had found the ten belonging to the Bronze saints and the twelve of the Gold Saints but the others were proving a little trickier to find since he wasn't as familiar with their patterns.

But as minutes went by the telescope ended up on the Andromeda constellation and remained there for a while.

With a small sigh, Seiya sat back on the chair he had and looked at the chart in his hands. His constellation and Shun's were practically connected and maybe that was why they were such close friends.

It hurt Seiya greatly knowing that Shun was currently imprisoned in an Ice Coffin and he continued to wonder if there was a way to save him.

"Here you are. Never knew you were one for star gazing Seiya."

Snapping out of his thoughts, Seiya turned to see Aiolos walk out of the temple.

"Marin taught me when I was still in training for my cloth and I found it helps calm me down sometimes." the Pegasus answered.

"I like to do the same from time to time." Aiolos said as he knelt to look through the lense to see the telescope focused perfectly on the Andromeda constellation. Turning his attention from the stars, Aiolos saw that Seiya was holding a star chart.

On it he had litle red check marks of the ones he must have found so far but what stuck out on the chart was that he had circled the Pegasus, Draco, Cygnus, Phoenix and Andromeda constellations. His own and he four men he fought in battle with.

Thunder rumbled a little closer and the clouds were now covering the remains of the clear sky. Seiya watched as the clouds covered the stars he had just been looking at. He never liked seeing this take place.

He always felt that when the clouds covered their constellations that something bad was going to happen. But maybe it was just his overactive imagination.

"How about we head back inside and have some hot chocolate before heading to bed?" Aiolos suggested picking up the telescope.

"Hot chocolate? That's not on our diet." Seiya joked halfheartedly folding the chair he had been sitting on.

"Just this once." Aiolos said with a smile as they walked back into the temple as the rain started to fall. "Besides, I more than likely guarantee that this weather is going to last a day or two."

"So indoor training tomorrow?" Seiya asked as they put the items in the closet.

"Take a rain check tomorrow." Aiolos replied as they headed into the kitchen. "I could never get myself to train when such weather is taking place. We can relax a little tomorrow but I at least would like to see how your archery is coming along."

"Sounds perfect to me. The only thing I could ever do on rainy days was drag Hyoga and Shiryu outside and play in the mud when we were kids." Seiya said with a small smile as he poured water into a kettle.

"I remember those days with Aioria." Ailos said with a tone of rememberance. "You probably wouldn't think so but Aioria was quite a handful at times when he was a child. He had about as much energy as you do and I could never get him to stay still or take a nap. It didn't help when he and Milo became friends growing up until their training kept them apart for a while."

"You're right, I wouldn't think any of that would happen." Seiya agreed. "I can easily believe Milo getting Aioria to help him prank everyone."

"That happened nearly every other day." Aiolos chuckled pouring the hot water into two mugs. "But I am glad that Aioria grew into the man he is today. I wish he was here right now but I guess he felt like he should help the search parties find Ikki."

Seiya held the warm mug in his hands and watched as the steam gently rose from it. Five weeks total had passed with no sign of Ikki. The Pegasus hated to see it happen but some people were starting to lose hope that Ikki would be found.

No one knew where he was sent after that battle on Olympus. Hades was the only one who might know but they sure weren't going to risk letting him out after everything they had to do to seal him away and they sure weren't going to let Shun's sacrifice go to waste.

 _Just like our constellations, Shun and Ikki are apart so much. I really hope that Aioria finds him and brings him back._ Seiya thought while taking a sip of his beverage.

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 **[Aquarius temple]**

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It was easy for him to just reach his hand out and touch the rain. It brought back memories of his childhood with the others when they had been taken from their original homes to live with Athena when she was just Saori Kido.

Hyoga weakly smiled as he leaned his back against the stone pillar as memories came to him. On rainy days Mr. Kido wouldn't allow any outdoor training but the little boys who were robbed of a normal childhood would run outside and play in the rain and mud when the old man would be somewhere spoiling Saori further or doing paper work.

The blond teen remembered the mud wrestling that Seiya would start with him and Shiryu and he remembered how furious Tatsumi would be when they would drag the mud into the mansion and they would be punished for it by not getting any supper.

Most of the kids who were there would take part in the rainy weather activities but there was always a certain older brother who prevented his little brother from such fun.

Hyoga remembered being outside running around in the rain and had spotted Shun looking out a window watching them. The look on the child's face said that he wanted to be out there with them more than anything but Ikki had been there at his side the whole time saying that he couldn't go outside or else he would get sick.

Looking out the window was the closest Shun ever got to going outside in the rain and was a fun experience he never really got to have.

"Hyoga, are you alright?"

The said teen looked up to see his mentor walking over to him.

"I'm fine." he answered. "This weather just brings back some old memories."

"I admit, this weather is very admirable." Camus said.

"Still, I can't help but feel exactly how the weather looks today." Hyoga said. "Gloomy and depressing."

"Are you still feeling guilty about the ending of the battle?" Camus asked seeming to have read Hyoga's mind.

"Yeah," Hyoga answered. "I still feel awful about it even though I knew what was going on and what we had to do."

"That true Hyoga and don't forget that." Camus said making sure to keep a sensitive manner. "Shun knew what had to be done as well and had asked for us to seal him and Hades away. We were just granting his request and we did it for the right reasons. Like you said, we knew what we had to do."

"Yeah, I just can't help but feel guilty." Hyoga said.

"It's because Shun was one of your closest friends and having to do something like that didn't feel right to you."

"It didn't." Hyoga agreed. "But, Shun asked for us to seal him away to keep the world and everyone in Sanctuary safe. I will continue to feel guilty like this until the day that Shun can be free of the prison he's in."

"We'll all be waiting for that day." Camus said placing a reassuring hand on Hyoga's shoulder. "Don't stay out too long. Even ice saints can catch a cold."

Hyoga lightly smiled at his mentor before the older man went back into the temple. Once he was gone, Hyoga turned his attention back to the weather.

The clouds over Sanctuary were very dark and heavy with rain. There was a depressed look hanging on the clouds as the rain fell from them. Having just started, it was s sure sign that the rain was going to continue for a day or so.

No outdoor training would be taking place since some of the grounds around Sanctuary easily flooded or got too muddy. Athena didn't want to see any of her saints sick from training in the rain which was why she planned on having a second stadium built with a rooftop so the saints and soldiers could continue their training when such weather occured.

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 **[Libra temple]**

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The weather outside was gloomy and cold but inside the Libra temple two people were enjoying a quiet dinner.

Both Dohko and Shiryu had been a little surprised when Athena allowed Shunrei to stay at Sanctuary in the Libra temple with the two of them but both were very grateful and happy to have her with them. The chinese girl was free to come and go whenever she pleased but she seemed pretty happy just being able to be around Shiryu and Dohko.

Like many times before, Shunrei had cooked a great meal but tonight Shiryu wasn't really up to eating much. Dohko had gone to the Five Ancient Peaks to take care of a few things and wouldn't return for about a week.

"Shiryu?"

The young man looked up when he heard Shunrei call him.

"Yes Shunrei?"

"Are you alright Shiryu?" Shunrei asked. "You've been awfully quiet tonight."

"I'm fine. I guess I just have my mind on other things right now." Shiryu answered.

"I guess that's why you haven't really eaten much tonight."

"I'm sorry, Shunrei." Shiryu said with a weak smile. "You've made a wonderful dinner and I'm not even paying attention."

"It's ok, Shiryu." Shunrei replied with a kind smile. "You told me about everything that's going on so I can understand why you're a little more quiet than usual. I know it may take a little time before things start getting close to normal again."

"Right as always." Shiryu said smiling a little more. "Although I admit that our lives have never really been normal, I do admit that they are returning to a predictable pattern."

Shunrei smiled at her best friend and not-so-secret crush.

A few minutes later after Shunrei insisted he relaxed, Shiryu was at the back entrance of the Libra temple looking up at the Sagittarius temple that was just a few dozen feet away from the Scorpio temple. He wished that he could speak with Seiya of a way to help Shun be free of his cold imprisonment but the rain wasn't going to allow him to walk away from the temple.

Shiryu also knew that if he so much as raised his foot to head outside into the rain that Shunrei would come knock him out cold and drag him back inside.

The dragon saint knew that he was exaggerating a bit but sometimes he did believe that Shunrei could be capable of such a task. Shiryu knew that when Shunrei was concerned about him she would try whatever she could to keep him from getting into any danger.

Shiryu did have to admit that he admired how much Shunrei cared for him. If he wasn't a saint, he knew that things would be different for the both of them.

The raven haired man came out of his thoughts when something wrapped around his arm. He smiled looking down to see Shunrei holding onto him with her head against his shoulder.

 _I do hope that things will change for the better_. Shiryu thought to himself. _That all of us can live peacefully and that one day Shun will be able to be free to live a normal life as well._

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 **[Palace]**

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"My goodness. The weather sure changed quickly didn't it Miss Athena?" A maid asked pouring a cup of tea and handing it to the war goddess.

"It has." Athena agreed taking the cup of tea and taking a sip before looking out the window once more.

"It will certainly give the farmers in the villages healthy crops to harvest." the maid said happily.

"And the children in all of the villages will be able to swim in the lakes and rivers now. Especially since it's summer time now." Athena agreed.

"Still I wonder where this rain came from so quickly."

 _It is a little strange._ Athena thought to herself. _It doesn't seem normal._

"It's almost time for dinner miss. I better go and help the others." the young maid said with a deep curtsy.

Athena smiled and watched the woman leave the room with the door closing behind her. Once she was alone, the purple haired goddess looked out the window that was one of the few places to have a view over looking all twelve zodiac houses.

The teenage woman nearly laughed easily seeing Aphrodite standing outside the back of his temple wearing a rain coat and setting up a rain measure method to see how much watering his roses were getting while he had a clipboard ready to write all of this information.

The war goddess had once heard Milo tell Camus that Aphrodite cared about his roses as if they were the rarest gems that needed round the clock care in order to be kept in perfect condition.

To the Pisces saints surprise, most of the other saints agreed with the scorpion.

A thoughtful expression crossed the goddesses face as she looked over the twelve houses of the zodiac.

Out of all the houses only four had pupils learning to be the next gold saints, one was out helping look for the missing saint that was also suppose to be his pupil and the other seven didn't have their pupils yet since they didn't know who they were to teach.

As much as she didn't want to think about it, Athena knew that her current Gold Saints weren't going to be around forever. It was wishful thinking but wasn't possible. The next generation of Gold Saints needed to be trained and ready to guard the twelve temples like the current saints.

Turning her eyes from the twelve temples Athena looked up at the sky. The maid was right about the rain coming so unexpectedly and it looked like the it wasn't going to let up for some time.

This was strange weather. Usually, rain wasn't often or so sudden and it would normally last a few hours at the most.

Hopefully this was just a quick rain storm that just came out of nowhere and would be gone by morning.

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 **[Virgo temple]**

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As usual, Shake kept himself busy by trying meditating. Just wearing his regular Buddha clothing and the only sound in the temple being the echo of the falling rain outside, the blond man sat in the center of the gold lotus pedestal trying to concentrate his cosmo to bring himself some inner peace.

Yet, for once, it wouldn't come.

He was sad deep down. Sad that he wouldn't have Shun as a pupil to teach and one day inherit the Virgo cloth. Now he had to decide which of his two top students would have the honor to fully train under their master.

Shiva of Peacock or Agora of Lotus.

Both were promising canditates and it was difficult to decide which one could be the next Virgo saint and be the protector of the sixth temple.

But Shaka didn't want his two top students to be his future replacement. As cold as he knew it seemed, he wanted them to stay where they were.

Students fully willing to serve and obey the Virgo saint. Which is what Shaka wanted Shun to be.

The power he head seen come from Shun so many times. The battles against the Pisces Aphrodite, Asgard God warriors, Poseidon's Marine generals...

Shaka had never thought such power was inside of Shun and that power could have been multiplied tenfold if fate had allowed it.

 _That blasted demon Hades!_ Shaka yelled in his mind deciding to forget his meditation and head to bed early. _How dare he! First he has the nerve to show his face in Sanctuary and force Athena into giving him her title, then he tricked Zeus into giving him the title as king of the Gods, then coming back to Sanctuary threatening to release the kraken and then finally trying to strike Athena only for his own incarnation to take control at the last second and demand for both their souls and his body to be sealed inside the ice coffin._

Up until the end of the battle against Hades, Shaka never realized how much of an influance the Bronze Saints had on him and the other Gold Saints. The teens had greatly proved their courage and loyalty to Athena. Proving their strength many times and each one leaving a mark on the Gold saints.

But Shaka had been taken back the most by Shun and Ikki.

Both brothers so willing to protect the other with their very life. Truely the brother's bond Shaka had taught his many pupils to have with each other, even though he himself never established it with anyone and he was sure the same thing applied to his students.

Now Ikki was missing and Shun was sealed in a freezing prison doomed to remain there until a solution was found. And the possible solution didn't look to be in the future any time soon.

For now, the peace they had all wished for was spread over the world. With the last of the deities sealed away there was no longer any threat to the saints or Athena. But with two of their own gone, they knew they couldn't be truely happy.

Not until they were all together again.

And who knew when that would be.

Shaka knew that with Ikki missing and Shun sealed, Athena was feeling depressed even though she tried her best not to show it. But he could tell and he knew the others could as well. The way her eyes were filled with sadness any time someone mentioned the two brothers.

Before sleep dominated his mind, Shaka vowed that he would try to find a way to solve this problem and get Athena's entire army complete once more.

.

 **[Rethymno, Crete]**

.

Leo Aioria sighed deeply as he gave the order for the soldiers to turn in for the night and they would start the search again in the morning.

The lion saint was getting more frustrated and worried by the day. He knew that it was getting close to hopeless on finding Ikki. There was only one other village on Crete to check and if Ikki wasn't there than the search would have to be called off.

It wasn't fair to keep the soldiers away from home for too long and if Ikki was still alive somewhere out there then it was a sure thing that he would be heading to Sanctuary.

Now the sky was dark and the waves of the ocean were rolling onto shore while the soldiers gathered around separate campfires to relax.

Aioria on the other hand decided to try to calm himself with a little walk on the shoreline.

The moon was half hidden because of some gathering clouds so he didn't have much light to see. Either way, he kept walking. Hoping that by just a pure stroke of luck that he would find a clue as to where Ikki may be.

With over a month of time, they all felt that the phoenix saint should have reached Sanctuary a long time ago. They all wanted Ikki to return as quickly as possible. He needed to be told of what happened to Shun.

 _Ikki, where are you?_ Aioria asked himself. _Why haven't you returned to Sanctuary? Why haven't we found a clue as to where you might be? Were you even transported back to Earth?_

The young saint came out of his thoughts when he spotted someone sitting on the shore with a cloak wrapped around his body and a small campfire blazing next to him.

 _He's sitting too close to that fire. He'll hurt himself._ Aioria thought deciding to go over and see if this person was aware of this fact.

The closer Aioria got to the person the more he realized that there was something familiar about them. The hair style and color looked oddly familiar to him.

"Excuse me, sir?"

The person turned to face the Leo saint when he spoke and both of them went into a state of shock.

 _It can't be!_ Aioria shouted in his head. _It's Ikki! Has he been here all this time? So close to Sanctuary and he never bothered to head back?_

"IKKI!"

"Aioria?"

"Ikki!" The young lion was utterly stunned to see the man standing before him. He didn't looked harmed in any way and appeared to have taken care of himself well while he was gone. "How...Have you been here all this time?"

Ikki shut his eyes and nodded once. It was plain to see that he felt sad and guilty about something but Aioria wasn't sure what.

Could he be feeling guilty that he was finally located when he was trying to be in secrecy? Or was he feeling guilty because of what happened on Olympus and he hadn't been there to help?

"Well, now that I've found you, I can take you back to Sanctuary. Athena and everyone else are very worried about you and they want you to come back. Athena wants to tell you what happened to Shun after you were sent back to Earth."

"I already know." Ikki stated turning his back to the older man to look at the sea.

"What?" Aioria gasped. "How could you possibly know what happened?"

"Aioria, you of all people should know that all brother's have a linking bond between them that can be felt no matter how far apart they are." Ikki answered. "After I surrendered my Godhood and was sent back to Earth, I ended up here on Crete. I'm not totally sure how or why I ended up here but I felt through my cosmo what happened. I knew that something had happened to Shun. Something bad. I felt his cosmo completely vanish along with Hades."

 _So he knows it happened but now how it happened._ Aioria thought trying to not show a sad expression as he recalled the first sight he saw when the fight was over inside the throne room.

Shun encased inside the ice coffin.

"Aioria,"

The said man snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the phoenix saint call his name.

"Uh, yes?"

"Tell me, what exactly happened to my brother?" Ikki asked.

Aioria didn't fail to noticed that Ikki's eyes were demanding to be told everything about his dear little brother. But Aioria wasn't sure if he could explain every detail to Ikki.

Aioria would feel like he was reliving everything that happened and he was sure that Ikki's mind and heart wouldn't be able to take what happened.

One thing that Aioria knew about older brothers, they had a great amount of emotions when it came to their siblings.

It was a widely known fact that Ikki could be a little unstable when it came to his emotions if certain topics were brought up and no other thing angered or upset the phoenix more than when something happened to his brother.

Ikki was an ideal brother in many ways. Always so protective of his younger sibling and would make sure that no harm came to him so he could always be the sweet child he always was.

 _Just like my brother._ Aioria thought fondly picturing the face of his brother he hasn't seen in the past month.

"Aioria! Tell me what happened!" Ikki demanded almost angrily.

Deciding not to get Ikki more upset, Aioria sat him down and started explaining everything.

He told Ikki how after he was sent to Earth that Hades threatened to release the kraken on Sanctuary and all of the villages around it. The only way that Hades had been stopped was when he had nearly stabbed Athena with his sword only for Shun to take over at the last second and called his gold nebula chains to trap his body and both his and Hades cosmo long enough for Athena to give the order for Hyoga and Camus to combine their powers to make the ultimate ice coffin where his body would be sealed.

He further explained how they had moved the ice coffin to a hidden location deep within the palace where only the Gold and Bronze saints, as well as Athena, could enter since the war goddess had set up a barrier that would recognize their cosmo and let them in.

So Ikki at least had the comfort of knowing that his younger brother was in the safest place possible.

When he was done explaining everything, Aioria looked at Ikki since he had been extremely quiet through the whole explanation. The fire saint's eyes were heavily quavering and it was easy to spy the tears that were collecting in his blue eyes. It was a sure thing they were going to spill over soon.

 _I understand how he feels._ Aioria thought looking at the fire in front of him. Somehow the burning flames had a somewhat calming affect on him.

"I should have been there!" Ikki quietly yelled as his tears started racing down his cheeks and falling onto the sand.

"Ikki,"

"Don't even try to tell me otherwise, Aioria." Ikki suddenly snapped. "Despite what happened I should have been there."

"Then come back with me to Sanctuary. We can leave in the morning or right now if you want. Everyone is worried about you since you've been gone so long and we're all waiting for the day that you'll be back in Sanctuary. I know that you weren't there when Shun was sealed inside the ice coffin but you can be there for him now and the day that he can be free from it."

Ikki looked up at the sky with tears still streaming down his face. He easily found the Andromeda constellation and the kind face of his little brother came to mind.

After they had received their cloths, Shun had been trying to think of something to keep them together but Ikki would always up and vanished before anything could happen.

Ikki knew that Shun didn't like it when he would go off on his own and only come back when there was something important or dangerous going on but he knew how much his brother liked being alone and therefore never put up too much of a fight in requesting his brother to stay.

The phoenix could only guess how Shun would feel when he was gone.

Probably sad and alone, not sure when he would see his brother again.

Now the same thing was happening again. Only this time it was under different circumstances. Shun was trapped in an ice coffin and it was unclear of when he would be free of it.

Now it was Ikki who was unsure of when he would get to see his brother again.

Sure he could see him inside the coffin but he wouldn't see his smile, the joyful shine of his eyes or the sound of his voice.

"Ikki, please, come back with me to Sanctuary." Aioria said in a pleading tone.

"I will." Ikki replied wiping away his tears. "You're right, Aioria. I wasn't there when Shun's body and soul were sealed away but I can be there for him when the day comes that he doesn't have to be in there anymore."

Aioria smiled greatly. At last, Ikki was found and heading back to Sanctuary.

But how would he react when he saw Shun?


End file.
